and he would say, “O Allah, I am upon the religion of Abraham (1).” Yet he never succeeded in obtaining the detailed law of Abraham as it ought to be, nor did he meet anyone who could acquaint him with it. Even so, he is among those who will be saved, for the Prophet ﷺ testified about him that he “will be resurrected as a nation unto himself (2).”
He was the cousin of the Imam ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb. He saw the Prophet ﷺ but did not live until the Prophet was commissioned.
Yūnus ibn Bukayr—one of the foremost vessels of knowledge in the Prophetic biography—transmitted from Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, who said:
A group from Quraysh—Zayd ibn ʿAmr ibn Nufayl, Warqah ibn Nawfal, ʿUthmān ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Asad, ʿUbayd Allah ibn Jahsh, and Umaymah bint ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib—once attended a feast of Quraysh at an idol where they used to slaughter sacrifices. When they had assembled, those people withdrew privately and said to one another, “Be honest and keep this secret.”
One of them said, “By Allah, you surely know that your people are upon nothing; they have strayed from the religion of Abraham and opposed it. What is an idol that is worshipped when it can neither harm nor benefit? So seek something better for yourselves.”
They therefore set out, travelling through the lands, searching among the People of the Scripture—Jews, Christians, and followers of every creed—looking for the ḥanīfiyyah (pure monotheism).
As for Warqah, he embraced Christianity, became firmly grounded in it, collected its scriptures, and gained extensive knowledge.
Among them none pursued a fairer course than Zayd: he dissociated himself from idols and from every religion save the religion of Abraham. He affirmed Allah’s oneness and would not eat of the animals slaughtered by his people.
His uncle al-Khaṭṭāb persecuted him, so Zayd withdrew to the upper part of Mecca and settled on Mount Ḥirāʾ. Al-Khaṭṭāb set some reckless youths upon him who would not allow him to enter Mecca, so he could enter only secretly. Al-Khaṭṭāb—who was also his maternal half-brother—would reproach him for abandoning their religion. Thus Zayd journeyed to Syria, the Jazīrah (Upper Mesopotamia), and Mosul, inquiring about the true religion (3).